


Cocoa and Claddghs

by watcherofworlds



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Christmas Fluff, F/M, Steggy Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-11 21:54:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9035588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watcherofworlds/pseuds/watcherofworlds
Summary: Oh Christmas night Peggy and Steve drink cocoa and cuddle on the couch in the light of their Christmas tree, and Peggy learns about the traditions and symbolism behind claddgh rings.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for a Steggy Secret Santa exchange on Tumblr

Steve froze in the doorway of his living room, two steaming mugs of hot cocoa in his hands. Peggy looked so beautiful bathed in multicolored light from the Christmas tree that for a moment he had to stop and catch his breath. He must have made a noise, because Peggy turned to look at him expectantly.

“I made hot cocoa,” he said, lifting one of the mugs in his hands toward her. She got up from the couch and took it from him with a grateful smile, her engagement ring clinking against the ceramic. Steve looked down at her sweater and burst out laughing.

“What?” she asked, barely containing a laugh herself.

“Nothing,” Steve replied, still laughing. “It’s just that your sweater is so wonderfully ugly.”

“Oh yes,” Peggy agreed. “As is yours. Ana really outdid herself this year.” With one last chuckle, Steve planted a loving kiss on Peggy’s cheek and sat down with her on the couch, his arm around her shoulders. She sighed contentedly and snuggled into his side. For the next few minutes they did nothing but sit and drink their cocoa in silence, taking pleasure simply in their closeness to one another. Steve found himself mesmerized by the pinpricks of colored light that flashed off of Peggy’s ring every time she moved her hand. He wanted to draw it, but didn’t think any amount of careful layering of colors on his part would do it justice.

“You should tell me the story behind this,” Peggy's said, flexing the fingers of her left hand in such a way as to make it clear that she was talking about her ring.

“I thought I did,” Steve remarked.

“Not the story behind its history in your family!” Peggy exclaimed, mock exasperated, smacking him lightly on the shoulder. “I meant the story behind the clad- the cladg-” She stumbled over the pronunciation of the Gaelic word.

“Claddagh,” Steve supplied, the word slipping off his tongue with an easy familiarity that surprised him, considering he hadn’t spoken his mother’s native language in years.

“Yes. That,” Peggy said. “ Tell me the story behind that. Surely it must have some kind of meaning behind it, right?”

“Right,” Steve agreed. “Let’s see.” He set his mug on the coffee table and took Peggy’s hand in his.

“If I’m remembering what my mother told me correctly,” he said, “the clasped hands represent friendship, the crown represents loyalty, and the heart represents love.” He used the hand not holding Peggy’s to indicate each part in turn as he named it.

“That’s very interesting Steve,” Peggy said. “Thank you for sharing it with me.”

“Well, you asked,” Steve replied, avoiding Peggy’s gaze, a blush tingeing his cheeks pink. “There’s actually a bit more, if you’d like to hear it.”

           “I would,” Peggy replied quietly, smiling in spite of herself at his shyness. She found it endearing that he still acted that way around her sometimes, despite their having been together for many years now.

           “Well, first off,” Steve said, “if we were following tradition, you would actually be wearing your ring like this.” He slipped it off her finger, turned it around, and replaced it so that now the point of the heart was pointed toward her fingertips. “This means that you're engaged. The other way traditionally signifies that the wearer of the ring is married.”

            “Huh,” Peggy said, intrigued. “And what if someone is wearing it on this hand?” She extricated her right hand from Steve's grip and wiggled her fingers to demonstrate.

            “That depends,” Steve said, automatically, as if at some point in his life he’d been schooled in the information until he could recite it from memory. “Worn on the right hand with the point of the heart toward the fingertips means that the wearer is single and may be looking for a relationship. Worn the other way, with the point of the heart of the heart toward the wrist, means that the wearer is... spoken for, if you will.” 

            “You certainly know a lot about this,” Peggy remarked, taking a sip of her cocoa.

             “You can thank my mother for that,” Steve replied with a soft chuckle. “She made sure to impart on me everything she knew about Irish history and culture. Said it's what my father would have wanted.” He was silent after that. Peggy put her feet up on the couch and leaned against him, her head resting on his chest, taking comfort in the heat that radiated off of him like a furnace. Steve adjusted his position on the couch to accommodate her, but said nothing. In fact, neither of them spoke for a long time. The only sound was that of the Christmas music piping softly through the radio sitting on top of the bookshelf. If the day and the setting hadn't already put Peggy in a festive mood, the music would have. 

      “Merry Christmas Steve,” she said, stretching up to give him a kiss on the cheek. Steve smiled.

      “Merry Christmas Peggy,” he said softly, his voice as warm as the happy feeling in Peggy's heart. He turned his head to press a kiss to her lips, gentle and chaste. She returned the kiss, and when they pulled apart she found herself wishing that it had lasted just a little bit longer. They went back to drinking their cocoa in silence, enjoying the Christmas music and each other's company, both of them feeling the holiday spirit the longer they sat there. Finishing their cocoa, they set their mugs down on the coffee table with two nearly simultaneous quiet  _ plink _ s, a momentary intrusion into the Christmas music filling the room.  They smiled at each other lovingly, Steve stretching out behind Peggy  on the couch and pulling her closer to him, his arms curling loosely around her waist. Peggy kissed him on the cheek again, then intertwined her fingers with his, colored light flashing off of her engagement ring, and rested her head on his chest. His head dropped down beside hers, coming to gentle stop with his chin on her shoulder, and eventually they drifted off to sleep, wreathed in the sound of Christmas carols, awash in the light from their Christmas tree.


End file.
